"The Lone Ranger"
rides into New Orleans on Saturday (June 22) as part of the multi-city "Justice
Tour" to promote the new Disney-backed film starring Armie Hammer and
Johnny Depp. But return with us now to those thrilling
days of yesteryear, and you'll learn that this will by no means be the first time the masked man
has brought his quest for truth and justice to the Big Easy.

A trip back into The
Times-Picayune archives shows that longtime "Lone Ranger" actor Clayton Moore
-- star of the 1950s television series -- made at least two promotional visits
to town during his nearly 50-year reign as the masked hero. The first was in
1956, during the show's original run, to promote the first "Lone Ranger"
feature film, co-starring Jay Silverheels as his onscreen sidekick Tonto.
Making three appearances at the Saenger Theatre on Canal Street, Moore -- as
reported by Elias McColloster in The New Orleans Item -- "was greeted by two youngsters
who almost turned to stone when he handed each of them one of his guns. They
were too stunned even to try to pull the triggers."

He followed up his
Sanger appearances with a visit to the children's ward at Charity Hospital --
where he handed out records from the film's soundtrack -- then continued on to
the American Bakeries on Tulane Avenue, where City Councilman Jimmy Fitzmorris
gave him a key to the city, McColloster wrote.

View full size'Lone Ranger' actor Clayton Moore visited New Orleans in 1956, as recounted in The New Orleans Item.TP | Nola.com archive

Nearly 20 years
later, Moore would return to promote a revival of his television show -- then
well into reruns -- on Cox Cable. That was in June 1985, and the
then-70-year-old Clayton appeared, in costume and with strains of his trademark
"William Tell Overture" introducing him, before the Jefferson Parish Council.
There, he handed out copies of his iconic black mask to council members (insert
scathing punchline of your choice here) and took pictures with them.

Afterward, he
visited the Ronald McDonald House, where he also passed out masks and posed for
a photo with the children for Times-Picayune photographer Eliot Kamenitz before
mounting up and heading out of town.

"I love this
character," Kamenitz quoted Moore as saying. "I try to pattern my life after
this man."

Disney's "Lone
Ranger" reboot, directed by Gore Verbinski, arrives in theaters July 3. In
the leadup to its release, life-sized statues of Hammer and Depp as the Lone
Ranger and Tonto are heading westward, cropping up unannounced in iconic
locales in 11 pre-selected cities including New Orleans. (Previous stops on the
Justice Tour have included New York, Orlando, Miami and Atlanta.) Fans
who spot them are invited to visit Disney.com/loneranger
and to Instagram or Tweet a photo -- or Tweet the location with the hashtag
#LRRideforJustice -- for a chance to win a trip for two to New Mexico. Clues to
the statues' whereabouts will be announced through the movie's Facebook and Twitter accounts.